Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Abstract:
Mobile devices are quickly becoming a necessity in all facets of our daily lives. In the educational sector, mobile devices are used as platforms for teaching and learning, just like personal computers. This transformation in learning tools needs to be sustained since it is undoubtedly in line with contemporary practices. Most young people of college age feel more comfortable using smaller and mobile devices for daily life rather than the bulky ones. The proliferation of mobile lifestyles necessitates the sector to evaluate the adoption of mobile learning approaches. This will in turn ensure sustainable learning and educational development within the academic sphere. This study compares the usability of blackboard (which is a Virtual Learning Environment used by educational institutions) through browsers on Personal Computers PCs with the usability of blackboard through mobile applications on mobile devices. To carry out this work, participants were invited to perform certain tasks on both platforms. The ease at which each task was performed was observed, computed and analyzed. The final outcome of the investigation showed that blackboard on PCs was easier and more learnable than its mobile version. This conclusion was reached because the participants and users finished most of their tasks on the PCs but not on the mobile devices.

Keywords: blackboard; mobile application; learning management system; virtual learning environment; usability

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